Apparatus for compacting material into drums or bags

ABSTRACT

COMPACTION APPARATUS HAVING A MATERIAL RECEIVER CHAMBER WITH AN INLET OPENING AT THE TOP AND AN OUTLET OPENING AT THE FRONT THE TOP AND BOTTOM EDGES OF THE OUTLET OPENING BEING DEFINED BY CIRCULAR ARCS MERGING AT OPPOSITE ENDS WITH STRAIGHT SEGMENTS WHICH FORM SQUARE CORNERS AT THE SIDE EXTREMITIES OF THE OUTLET OPENING. A COMPACTION BLADE OF CROSS-SECTION SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME AS THE OUTLET OPENING, AND THE CROSS-SECTION OF THE LOWER PORTION OF THE MATERIAL RECEIVER CHAMBER, MOVES THROUGH THE CHAMBER AND FORCES MATERIAL THROUGH THE OUTLET OPENING INTO A SNOUT. THE SNOUT COMPRISES, IN SUCCESSION, A PORTION OF CROSS-SECTION SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME AS THE RECEIVER CHAMBER OUTLET OPENING, A TAPERED TRANSITION PORTION, AND A PORTION OF CIRCULAR CROSS-SECTION, THE RADIUS OF WHICH IS SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME AS THE CIRCULAR ARCS OF SAID OUTLET OPENING. A RECEPTACLE RECEIVED OVER THE SNOUT IS MOVED ALONG THE SNOUT AS MATERIAL IS SUPPLIED THERETO. THE BLADE HAS CUTTING TEETH WHICH COOPERATE WITH A SHEAR BAR AT THE UPPER PORTION OF THE RECEIVER CHAMBER OUTLET OPENING, AND THE BLADE IS GUIDED BY ELONGATED MEMBERS IN A MACHINERY COMPARTMENT BEHIND THE RECEIVER CHAMBER.

M- CLAR d. 26, mm

APPARATUS FOR COMPACTING MATERIAL INTO DRUMS OR BAGS Filed April 50, 1970 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 NwR mvm'ron MILTON CLAR m /m m'ro aha 5160,0170

M. "cL AR Oct. 26, 1971 APPARATUS FOR COMPAC'IING MATERIAL INTODRUMS 0R BAGS Filed April 50, 1970 3 Sheets-Shoot 5 FIG. 5

mvsumn MILTON CLAR FIG. 6

av Shapiro and Shapiro ATTUR N I'IY S Int. Cl. B3011 /06 US. Cl. 100-229 13 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Compaction apparatus having a material receiver chamber with an inlet opening at the top and an outlet opening at the front, the top and bottom edges of the outlet opening being defined by circular arcs merging at opposite ends with straight segments which form square corners at the side extremities of the outlet opening. A compaction blade of cross-section substantially the same as the outlet opening, and the cross-section of the lower portion of the material receiver chamber, moves through the chamber and forces material through the outlet opening into a snout. The snout comprises, in succession, a portion of cross-section substantially the same as the receiver chamber outlet opening, a tapered transition portion, and a portion of circular cross-section, the radius of which is substantially the same as the circular arcs of said outlet opening. A receptacle received over the snout is moved along the snout as material is supplied thereto. The blade has cutting teeth which cooperate with a shear bar at the upper portion of the receiver chamber outlet opening, and the blade is guided by elongated members in a machinery compartment behind the receiver chamber.

REFERENCE TO CO-PENDING APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 727,845, filed May 9, 1968, now Pat. No. 3,541,949 which issued Nov. 24, 1970.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to compaction apparatus for refuse or the like and is more particularly concerned with apparatus for supplying compacted trash to barrels, drums, or bags, for example.

In the foregoing co-pending application compaction apparatus is described which employs a material receiver chamber with an inlet opening at one side thereof and an outlet opening at one end thereof through which material is moved by a blade into a volume-reducing snout. The outlet opening from the receiver chamber is non-circular and has an area less than the area of a circle with diameter equal to the width of the outlet opening. The snout has a preferably circular outlet opening of substantially less area than the area of the outlet opening of the receiver chamber and includes a tapered transition portion. A container placed upon the snout receives the compacted material and moves along the snout as the container is filled. The compaction blade has cutting members which cooperate with a shear bar for breaking up large pieces of material in the receiver chamber. This apparatus of the co-pending application is especially effective in compacting trash from large diameter trash chutes employed in high-rise apartment buildings into conventional containers and requires very little space for its installation and operation. Compaction ratios of the order of 7 to 1 or better are readily attained, without excessive back pressures upon the packing blade and without jamming.

nited States Patent BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to an improvement upon the apparatus of the aforesaid co-pending application, particularly to simplification of the construction of that aparatus in order to improve the economy of manufacture, and to reduce further any tendency toward jamming or excessive back pressure.

It is accordingly a principal object of the invention to provide improved apparatus of the foregoing type.

Briefly stated, the present invention employs a material receiver chamber, blade, and projecting snout generally similar to those employed in the apparatus of the co-pending application, but the shape of the receiver chamber, blade, and entry and transitional portions of the snout have been modified. Moreover, the shell of the compaction apparatus has been simplified, and the blade guides have been placed internally of the shell behind the material receiver chamber.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be further described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate a preferred and exemplary embodiment, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the apparatus of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation view;

FIG. 3 is a rear elevation view;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation view;

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is a side elevation view of the blade.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to the drawings, the compaction apparatus of the present invention comprises a housing or shell 10 having a material receiver chamber 12 at the forward end of the housing and a machinery compartment 14 at the rearward end of the housing. The housing has a lower portion defined by a bottom wall (see FIG. 3) which in cross-section includes a circular arc 16 and a pair of straight segments 18 and 20 which diverge upwardly and outwardly from the circular arc to the side extremities 22 and 24. The housing has substantially vertical side walls 26 and 28, which may be slightly upwardly divergent to define the side walls of a hopper leading to the material receiver chamber. The machinery compartment 14 is separated from the material receiver chamber 12 by an upwardly and rearwardly inclined wall 30 extending between the side walls of the housing and defining the rear wall of the hopper. The machinery compartment may have a rear wall at 32 or may be open at the rear. Legs 34 are provided to support the housing above the level of the floor.

The front wall 36 of the housing and the depending vertical portion 38 of wall 30 cooperate with the lower portion of the housing in defining openings (the front wall opening being designated 0) for the passage of a compaction blade 40 of corresponding cross-section. The blade is formed as a hollow box with a cross-section that is circular at top and bottom merging with straight segments at the side extremities. The top and bottom straight segments converge to form square corners at the sides of the blade as shown in FIG. 3. The blade rests upon the bottom of the housing and is constrained against vertical movement by a pair of longitudinally extending angular guides 42 and 44 (FIG. 3) fixed to the inner surfaces of the side walls of the housing in the machinery compartment. The front wall 48 of the blade, constituting the packing surface of the blade, is provided along the upper portion thereof with a series of forwardly extending teeth 46. The blade is supported in the housing for reciprocative movement between a retracted position (shown in phantom lines in FIG. 5) at which the front 3 wall 48 of the blade may be adjacent to the opening in rear wall 38 of the receiver chamber, and an extended position (shown in full lines in MG. 5) at which the front wall of the blade projects forwardly beyond the front wall 36 of the housing.

Reciprocative movement of the blade is obtained by the use of a hydraulic system which includes a pair of hydraulic rams 50 mounted side-by-side in the housing. The cylinders 52 of the rams have one end thereof fixed to an I-beam 54 mounted horizontally at the rear of the housing, and the piston rods 56 extend forwardly into the box-like compaction blade 40 and are connected to the inside of the front wall 48 thereof, the rear of the compaction blade being open. The remainder of the hydraulic system, which may include a motor-driven pump, four-way reversing valve, and the usual hydraulic fiuid lines, may be as described in the aforesaid co-pending application, for example. The hydraulic system may be operated by a manual control or by an automatic control, such as an electric eye which senses trash deposited upon the top of the extended blade, and suitable limit switches, pressure switch, relays, solenoids, etc. may be provided as set forth in the copending application, for example, in conjunction with the hydraulic system.

In accordance with the invention, the housing is provided with a volume-reducing tubular snout 58 which projects forwardly from the opening 0 in the front wall of the housing. The snout preferably comprises three portions, namely a rear or entry portion 60, adjacent to the front wall 36 of the housing, having a cross-section which matches and extends from the opening 0 of the front wall, a forward or exit portion 62 of substantially constant circular cross-section, and an intermediate tapered transitional portion 64 which connects portions 60 and 62. As shown, the cross-sectional area of the forward portion 62 is substantially less than the cross-sectional area of the rearward portion 60 of the snout, and the crosssectional area of the transitional portion 64 is continually reduced to match the forward and rearward portions of the snout. In the preferred form of the invention illustrated the taper is principally in a horizontally plane, and the height of the snout is approximately the same from one end to the other. The sides of the transitional portion 64 comprise wedge-shaped sections 66 having upper and lower surfaces which converge to an apex in the direction of the front of the snout.

The snout is constructed quite simply, starting with a uniform cylinder. The rear portion 60 is formed by cutting notches into the sides of the snout from the rear thereof (the notches appearing rectangular in side elevation and having upper and lower edges defined by radial planes from the axis of the snout cylinder at 45 degrees above and 45 degrees below the horizontal), and by attaching at the notches right-angle pieces with the flat sur faces thereof merging with and tangent to the circular surfaces at the top and bottom of the snout. The rear or entry portion of the snout thus formed matches the outlet opening 0 at the front of the housing. The transitional section of the snout is formed by extending the rectangular notches forwardly with the edges converging to a point, and then by fitting the wedge-shaped pieces 66 to these pointed notch extensions, so as to mate with the right-angle pieces at the rear portion of the snout and to blend into the circular surfaces at the front portion of the snout.

The snout may be attached to the housing by means of four fasteners 68, which may include bolts welded to the housing 10, extending into sleeves welded to a rear flange 67 of the snout, and secured by nuts. The upper portion of the opening 0 at the front of the housing is strengthened and extended rearwardly by a shear bar 69 which conforms to the shape of the opening. The shear bar cooperates with the teeth 46 of the blade in breaking up large pieces of material which may obstruct the packing action.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, an arm 70 extends forwardly cantilever-fashion from the rear portion of the snout and supports a switch 72 adjacent to its forward end. The arm is spaced from the upper surface of the forward portion of the snout sutficiently to permit a receptacle D, such as a drum, to be placed over the snout, as will be described hereinafter, and to engage the depending actuator 74 of the switch.

In a typical application of the invention, the compaction apparatus is actuated automatically in response to the presence of material, such as trash, at the inlet opening 1' (FIG. 5) at the top side of the receiver chamber 12. The apparatus of the invention may be located in the basement of a multi-story apartment building beneath the lower end of a chute 76 shown in phantom lines in FIGS. 3 and 4, the housing being extended upwardly as shown in FIG. 4 to provide an enclosure or hopper into which the material to be compacted may fall. Wall 30 constitutes a deflection plate for the material which falls through the chute from the upper levels of the apartment house under the influence of gravity. Reference may be made to the applicants Pat. No. 3,231,107 for a description of the arrangement of stationary compaction apparatus in a high-rise apartment house.

In the preferred form of the apparatus of the invention the blade normally rests in its extended or forward position and blocks the inlet openingi at the top of the receiver chamber. Material dropping from the chute thus comes to rest upon the top of the blade where it may interrupt a light beam projected from a suitable source, located above the blade at one side of the housing, to a photoelectric relay, similarly located at the opposite side of the housing, as described in the aforesaid patent and the aforesaid co-pending application. When the light beam is interrupted, the blade is moved rearwardly to the fully retracted position illustrated in phantom lines in FIG. 5, and the material resting upon the blade drops into the receiver chamber 12, the blade then moving forwardly to force the material through the outlet opening 0 at the front of the receiver chamber. Suitable wiper elements 78 (FIG. 3), such as canvas or rubber strips, may be secured to wall portion 38 around the upper edges of the opening therein to wipe the blade and prevent material from being carried into the machinery compartment 14 as the blade moves rearwardly.

When the blade reaches its fully retracted position, the operating circuit reverses the movement of the blade, and the blade moves forwardly, forcing the material in the receiver chamber into the snout. If no further material is received on top of the blade when the blade is in its forward or extended position, the blade comes to rest in that position. If the blade encounters a large obstruction as it moves forwardly, the operation of the system produces back and forth movement of the blade, causing the teeth 46 to engage the obstruction repetitively and, by cooperation with the shear bar 69, to break the obstruction if possible and force the pieces into the snout.

The material forced into the rear portion 60 of the snout will be greatly reduced in volume when it encounters the transition section 64 and will be squeezed into the forward section 62. When sufiicient compacted material accumulates in the snout, the snout will fill up, and the compacted material will pass through outlet opening 0' of the snout into the receptacle D. As more and more compacted material is forced into the receptacle, the receptacle, which is closed at its left-end (bottom) in FIG. 4 and is free to move on the snout, will move forwardly along the snout under the compressive force of the compaction blade until the actuator 74 of switch 72 is released. This will de-energize the apparatus and operate an indicator light to signify that the receptacle should be changed.

Either a drum-type receptacle, such as a SS-gallon metal oil drum, or a bag-type receptacle, such as a bag of heavy paper or plastic material, may be employed.

The receptacle is preferably placed upon the snout until its major portion (at least 50%) overlaps the snout. The receptacle need not fit the snout snugly, because it need not partake significantly in the compaction of the material received therein. An oil drum manually placed upon the snout until its bottom is a few inches from outlet will move forwardly when filled until it tips and the bottom-side corner engages the floor, whereupon the drum may be manually removed from the snout and replaced by another.

As set forth in the aforesaid co-pending application, apparatus heretofore proposed to compact material supplied from a chute and to feed the compacted material to a receptacle employs a blade which moves the material from a receiver chamber and through a tapered snout. However, such apparatus relies upon circular crosssectional geometry exclusively. (Rudimentary non-circular tapered compaction apparatus has been employed in packaging Christmas trees, for example, but is not suitable for handling trash supplied as in the environment of the present invention.) The applicant discovered that an optimum relationship exists between the cross-sectional area of the opening at the front of the receiver chamber (the entry to the snout), the cross-sectional area at the discharge outlet of the snout, the amount of compaction obtained, and the force required to drive the compaction blade, and that in practice the relationship cannot be fulfilled with circular geometry compaction apparatus in association with large diameter chutes and conventional containers. Optimum operation, with compaction of the order of 7 to 1 (volume reduction) for ordinary dry trash is obtained when the area of the discharge opening of the snout is approximately 78% of the area of the outlet from the receiver chamber. If this percentage increases appreciably, the compaction ratio decreases, and if the percentage decreases appreciably, the increased compaction is not justified by the great increase in energy required to. do the compacting. If the receiver chamber is a cylinder of circular cross-section with a circular outlet opening, the diameter of the receiver chamber must be sufiicient to accommodate the large diameter chutes which must be employed in apartment buildings, for example, for adequate handling of conventionally disposed items such as large cardboard boxes and bundles of newspapers. Severely tapered hopper walls leading to a smaller diameter chamber promote jamming by large objects. Typically the chute may have a 24-inch or 30-inch diameter or width. If the diameter of the receiver chamber is commensurately large, as is necessary to prevent clogging at the inlet opening of the receiver chamber, the diameter of the outlet of the snout must also be quite large. Otherwise, the back pressure upon the packing blade becomes enormous, and the amount of energy required to compact the material becomes impractically large. If a large enough snout outlet diameter is employed to prevent these conditions, the cross-sectional area of conventional receptacles is too small to fit the snout. Hence, unconventional and expensive receptacles must be employed, and such receptacles are so large that they become unwieldy, making it very difiicult to handle them manually when filled.

As set forth in the aforesaid co-pending application,

.the foregoing problems are overcome by providing compaction apparatus with a receiver chamber wide enough to accommodate a large diameter chute, such as a 24- inch diameter or 30-inch diameter chute, and which yet permits the use of a relatively small diameter snout outlet commensurate with conventional receptacles, such as 55-gallon oi-l drums and paper bags of similar size. The invention set forth in the co-pending application employs a straight-sided polygonal cross-section blade of greater width than height, the receiver chamber outlet opening and the lower portion of the receiver chamber matching the configuration of the blade, and the receiver chamber outlet opening having its widest dimension disposed hori- 6 zontally, so as to accommodate the width of the chute. If a receiver chamber outlet opening of circular crosssection with diameter equal to the width of the receiver chamber were employed, the diameter of the outlet of the snout would have to be much too large to meet the practical considerations set forth above. The cross-sectional area of the outlet opening of the receiver chamber of the apparatus of the co-pending application is, however, substantially less than the cross-sectional area of a circle with diameter corresponding to the width of the receiver chamber, and thus the cross-sectional area of the snout outlet may be made small enough to fit conventional receptacles without exceeding practical criteria for efiicient compaction in terms of the amount of volume reduction obtained from a given energy input.

The apparatus of the present invention employs the same principles as the apparatus described in the aforesaid co-pending application, but the construction of the apparatus has been simplified to facilitate its manufacture and to reduce further any possibility of jamming or excessive back pressure. As noted above, in the apparatus of the present invention the snout is completely cylindrical from end to end except for the side sections at the rear and transitional portions of the snout. The cylindrical surfaces at the rear portion of the snout blend smoothly into and are tangent with the flat surfaces at the side extremities. This is also true of the cylindrical and flat surfaces of the blade, the mating lower portion of the housing, and the openings at the front and rear of the material receiver chamber through which the blade passes. In addition, the guiding of the blade is simplified by providing elongated angle-piece guide members on the sides of the housing 10 internally of the machinery compartment. This permits the side walls of the housing to be substantially smooth and avoids the longitudinally extending angular protuberances which project from the side walls of the housing in the apparatus of the aforesaid co-pending application.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes can be made in this embodiment without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:

1. Compaction apparatus comprising a material receiver chamber having an outlet opening at one end thereof with a tubular snout projecting from said opening, said opening being defined by circular arcs at the top and bottom merging at opposite ends thereof with straight segments, the straight segments at the top converging with the corresponding straight segments at the bottom to form corners at the side extremities of said opening, said snout having a first portion of cross-section substantially the same as said opening, a second portion of substantially circular cross-sectional area less than the cross-sectional area of said first portion, and a transitional portion connecting said first and second portions, and a compaction blade supported for movement in said material receiver chamber toward and away from said snout, said snout being freely exposed along a substantial part of its length and adapted to receive a tubular container thereon over said second portion.

2. The compaction apparatus of claim 1, said receiver chamber having a lower portion the cross-section of which is substantially the same as and an extension of the lower portion of said outlet opening, said outlet opening having substantially greater width than height.

3. The compaction apparatus of claim 2, said compaction blade having a cross-section substantially the same shape as said outlet opening and being arranged to reciprocate through said receiver chamber, said chamber having an opening at one side thereof for the reception of material to be compacted.

4. The compaction apparatus of claim 2, said outlet opening having square corners at the side extremities thereof, and the straight segments defining said outlet opening being tangent with the associated circular arcs.

5. The compaction apparatus of claim 1, the circular arcs of said outlet opening being aligned with and having substantially the same radius as the circular cross-section of said second portion of said snout.

6. The compaction apparatus of claim 1, said material receiver chamber having a rear wall spaced from said outlet opening, said rear wall having an opening therethrough of substantially the same shape as said outlet opening, and said blade being supported for reciprocation through the opening in said rear wall toward and away from said outlet opening, said material receiver chamber having side walls which extend rearwardly behind said rear wall and which there support elongated angular blade guides with lower surfaces mating with the upper surfaces of the blade adjacent to the side extremities of the blade.

7. Compaction apparatus comprising a tubular snout having an entry portion with a cross-section wider than high, an exit portion of cross-sectional area less than that of the entry portion, and a tapered transitional portion connecting said entry and exit portions, the cross-section of said entry portion having circular arcs at the top and bottom merging at opposite ends thereof with straight segments, the straight segments at the top converging with the corresponding straight segments at the bottom to form corners at the side extremities of said entry portion, the cross-section of said exit portion being substantially circular, and means for compacting material in said snout through said entry portion, said snout being freely exposed along a substantial part of its length and adapted to receive a tubular receptacle placed over the exit portion of said snout through one end of the receptacle, with the snout extending along a major portion of said receptacle and with the receptacle being free to move along said snout, the opposite end of said receptacle being 8 closed whereby material is compacted in said snout and forced into said receptacle, causing said receptacle to move along said snout as it fills.

8. The compaction apparatus of claim 7, wherein the cross-section of said entry portion has square corners at the side extremities thereof.

9. The compaction apparatus of claim 8, the circular arcs of said cross-section of said entry portion being tangent with the associated straight segments extending therefrom to said corners.

10. The compaction apparatus of claim 7, the top and bottom surfaces of said snout being cylindrical and of substantially the same radius throughout the length of the snout.

11. The compaction apparatus of claim 7, said transitional portion comprising wedge-shaped sections at the opposite sides of said snout.

12. The compaction apparatus of claim 11, said wedgeshaped sections converging forwardly and horizontally and each including surfaces which converge laterally and vertically.

13. The compaction apparatus of claim 7, the crosssectional area of the exit portion of said snout being about 78% of the cross-sectional area of the entry portion of said snout.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,006,272. 10/1961 Brady 98 X 3,065,586 11/1962 Ghiringhelli 53-124 3,222,853 12/1965 Michael IOU-98 X 3,384,007 5/1968 Bose et al 10098 X BILLY J. WILHlTE, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

